Shulan outbreak puts 8,000 in quarantine

Source:Global Times Published: 2020/5/15 20:23:40

Station staff and police maintain order at train depot in Jilin, Northeast China's Jilin Province on Wednesday. The city suspended all intercity train services, and urban communities and villages were closed off amid a rebound of COVID-19. Photo: cnsphoto

Chuanying district in Northeast China's Jilin Province adjusted its epidemic-risk level from low to medium on Friday after a female coronavirus patient was diagnosed, who turned out to be the close contact of a confirmed patient from Shulan that is under the administrative jurisdiction of Jilin city, while cluster infections have placed over 8,000 in quarantine.

Chuanying district became the third area in Jilin city to raise the alarm after the outbreak first occurred in Shulan. Twenty nine are confirmed patients, with 26 in Jilin city and three in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, media reported.

Authorities in Jilin have traced 686 close contacts to domestically-transmitted cases and sent them to designated places for medical observation. Liaoning also identified 1,093 close contacts to three confirmed cases and 6,434 people with high risks after authorities in Shenyang announced on Wednesday a 21-day quarantine in designated places, and three nucleic acid tests among those arrivals from Jilin city since April 22.

The newly reported four confirmed cases in Jilin frequently visited public places such as supermarkets and restaurants, and one has done cleaning work in seven places, according to the patient's travel history. The province also faces severe and complex epidemic control work with major risks of seeing an outbreak further extend.

Jilin also banned on Friday all outbound buses and tour vehicles from leaving the city, according to the local authority. Local residents who intend to leave should provide a series of certificates, including a nucleic acid test report valid within 48 hours, and company and community certificates for quarantine as part of efforts in enhancing prevention and control work. Meanwhile, the city is also expanding the scope of nucleic acid testing after the National Health Commission supported building a P3 laboratory in Shulan.

From Thursday to Friday, Jilin collected nucleic acid samples of 13,166 people and finished 6,195 tests, the local health authority said in a routine conference on Friday.

With the help of the work team dispatched by the National Health Commission and provincial epidemic work group, the work of tracing the sources of infections is proceeding smoothly, Liu Qizhi, the director of the Jilin municipal health authority, told the conference. And Shulan expanded the scope of epidemiologist investigation and nucleic acid detection to secondary close contacts of local confirmed cases and asymptomatic infected persons as well as the general public based on the trajectory of confirmed cases.